In his latest book, Primal: A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity, Mark Batterson explores the Great Commandment….

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.

Mark 12:30 (NIV)

Mark describes his latest work as……

a reimagination of the four primal elements detailed by Jesus in the Great Commandment:

The heart of Christianity is primal compassion.

The soul of Christianity is primal wonder.

The mind of Christianity is primal curiosity.

And the strength of Christianity is primal energy.

He challenges us to be great at the Great Commandment by using a mix of……

• fresh looks at Bible stories
• interesting tidbits of history
• personal stories from Mark’s life and the life of National Community Church
• terminology and concepts from the world of science

And just like his other books, In a Pit With a Lion on a Snowy Day and Wild Goose Chase, and his blog, evotional.com, Mark fills the pages with simple yet powerful and memorable one-liners and short paragraphs. Here are a few that I highlighted:

If you are a follower of Christ, then you have been drafted into an army of compassion that knows no enemy but those things that break the heart of God.

Faith equals God-ordained risks in the face of fear. Obedience equals God-honoring decisions in the face of temptation. And compassion equals Spirit-prompted generosity in the face of greed.

The blessings of God are always a means to an end. And the end is blessing others. We are blessed to bless..

One of the great mistakes we’ve made in modern Christianity is approaching God deductively as an object of knowledge instead of approaching Him inductively as the cause of wonder.

The Bible is the place where God bares His soul….The quest for the lost soul of Christianity always leads us back to the Bible.

Loving God with all your mind means making the most of your mind by learning as much as you can about as much as you can.

…the god who conveniently fits within the confines of your mind will never fill the soul with wonder.

There should be no disconnect between spiritual and intellectual pursuits. The mind and soul are not enemies. They are allies.

Christianity was never intended to be a noun. And when we turn it into a noun, it becomes a turnoff. Christianity was always intended to be a verb. We’ve got to act on God ideas.

Vision is the cure for sin. A God-given vision keeps us from decay and disorder. It energizes everything we do. And turning that vision into reality is one way we love God with all our strength.

If you are looking to “reignite a primal faith’” and “rediscover the compassion, wonder, curiosity, and energy that turned the world upside down two thousand years ago”, then this book is for you.

Order a copy here.

This book was provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group.

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We are in the middle of a series at church called, Tightrope – Living in the Tension. This weekend’s message focused on the tension between strength and weakness.

Pastor Kerry used 2 Corinthians 12:7 – 10 where Paul describes one of his own weaknesses or “thorn in his flesh”.

Thought I would share a few of my notes from the message…….

• Your greatest weakness might just be your greatest gift.

• If you want to impress people, impress them with your strengths. If you want to influence people, influence them by admitting your weaknesses.

• A weakness is a gift because it……

• builds my character

• removes my complacency

• increases my compassion

• gives God credit

• God’s power works best in weak people.

• It is not about your weakness, it is about God’s greatness.

• Sometimes it takes God being all you have for you to realize he is all you need.

• Instead of focusing on how ordinary you are, focus on how extraordinary He is.

• Focus not on the giant of your problem, but on the greatness of your God.

• Your weakness doesn’t determine your worth.

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The story of Matt Mullenweg is an interesting one. He is the founding developer of Wordpress, the popular open-source blogging software. At the age of only 25, he has already been named as as one of PC World’s Top 50 People on the Web and Business Week’s 25 Most Influential People on the Web.

Matt blogs at ma.tt and his latest post starts like this….

I often get asked something along the line of, “If you weren’t leading Automattic, what would you work on?” There’s not a single answer to this question; the answer changes day to day. But I think if you asked me today, I’d say I would like to start a bank.

He goes on to explain what kind of bank he would start….and it’s nothing like the bank you currently use. Go read the blog post here.

I can’t wait until this type of fresh thinking, creativity, innovation, common sense, and focus on the customer invade and disrupt all of our traditional industries like banking, auto, airline, real estate, etc.

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“We train people to think about improvement all of the time, to have what I call a culture of creative dissatisfaction with the status quo.”  - Ananth Krishnan, Chief Technology Officer, Tata Consultancy Services [Business Week, How To Build A Culture of Innovation]

Creative dissatisfaction….I like that term.

Employers are always so worried about the satisfaction of their employees. They conduct survey after survey to measure the dissatisfaction. Employee dissatisfaction is seen as a liability.

What if employers changed their perspective and viewed their employee dissatisfaction as an asset? An asset to be used as fuel to drive significant, creative, innovative, positive change.

What if employers said to employees?…….

We recognize that you aren’t satisfied with the way things are. Neither are we. Our mission is not yet accomplished. Our vision is not yet achieved. We want a culture of creative dissatisfaction with the status quo. We want to hear your ideas on how to move forward. Where creativity, innovation, and change are needed, we want you to have the freedom and power to create, innovate, and change.”

Listening to ideas and giving employees the freedom and power to create, innovate, and change are key. Without that, then your employee dissatisfaction is, well, just a liability.

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Just started reading Conversational Capital: How to Create Stuff People Love to Talk About based on the recommendation of my new friend, @jmkeller. [btw..check out his new blog at creativedropbox.blogspot.com.good stuff]

Conversational Capital is a book about building word-of-mouth into a brand experience.

The authors share the following eight engines of conversational capital……

1 // Myths

Myths are the narratives that become part of the very fabric of consumption because they provide important clues as to fundamental meaning of that act.

2 // Rituals

Rituals are an essential part of how human beings create and formalize meaning. The presence of ritual marks out an experience as deeper in meaning – a phenomenon that is true for consumer experiences, as well.

3 // Exclusive Product Offering (E.P.O.)

Exclusive Product Offering (E.P.O.) is about allowing consumers to create an experience that asserts and actualizes their individuality; to, in a world of six billion people, feel and be unique.

4 // Relevant Sensorial Oddity (R.S.O.)

Relevant Sensorial Oddity (R.S.O.) is about challenging our senses with something extraordinary, marking an experience as unique.

5 // Icons

Icons are signs and symbols that clearly demarcate a consumption experience from any other.

6 // Tribalism

Tribalism is about the power of a brand experience to inspire the association of like-minded people.

7 // Endorsement

Endorsement is not about celebrity – it’s about how the meaning and intensity of a brand experience naturally lead to credible people organically endorsing it.

8 // Continuity

Continuity is a strong harbinger of reputation, a fact that rests on the unity between what you promise, what people expect and what you deliver.

[HT: Wikipedia]

What new book is on your nightstand or your Kindle?

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